Today the Executive Summary and Race Report Card of a major new review is published, highlighting ongoing diversity failures by the organisers of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games; in race equality, in community engagement and in accountability.
BRIG’s “report card” raises serious concerns on the diversity, data collection and direct procurement of the Games so far, resulting in missed opportunities to invest in Birmingham’s diverse communities. Our city’s diversity – and the active involvement of many citizens of all heritages that contribute to the “Games for Everyone” – was a key selling point in our pitch to bring the 2022 Commonwealth Games to Birmingham. In fact, as this report reveals, it is just these same communities that have been largely shut out of direct involvement, business investment and other opportunities.
“Diverse athletes and audiences from over fifty countries arrive in Birmingham for ten days from July 28th; while the city’s own diverse communities have not been meaningfully engaged from the outset and been left out in the cold. The games are now just around the corner. We now need to ensure the game’s legacy gets it right”. Ranjit Sondhi – BRIG Acting Chair.
In July 2020 the media widely reported that over fifty prominent representatives from the city’s faith, politics, creative and community sectors had published an open letter to the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC), voicing concerns that only one out of the twenty board members was non-white. This letter raised a series of questions; these formed the basis of Birmingham’s Race Equality Progress Report Card 2022, published today and summarised in the infographic overleaf.
“Lack of evidence of any meaningful progress leads us to conclude that the questions raised by communities of Birmingham remain largely unanswered and unresolved. The Report Card seriously challenges the diversity credentials sought and projected by B2022 in providing a series of recommendations to the Commonwealth Games OC and its delivery partners”. Jagwant Johal – BRIG Secretary.
BRIG’s findings will disappoint all those committed to the success of the Games and hoping for a positive legacy for the city. They will also leave the communities of Birmingham – many with deep and unique Commonwealth connections that could have been leveraged – feeling that they have been largely ignored. Notwithstanding the OC’s proclaimed commitment to celebrating diversity, it is clear that they have crucially failed to win wide and deep community support.
The conclusions of the Report Card suggest that the OC has been more preoccupied with its internal delivery structures than with winning the trust, confidence and support of Birmingham’s diverse communities. This failure by the OC’s leadership, both at Board and Executive level to transparently or convincingly to start to address deep and persistent racial inequalities in the City, especially with the key city partners being on its Board, when it was within their power and mission to do so – may well become one of the more undesirable legacies of the Commonwealth Games.
B2022 Report Card Executive Summary During the last year, The Birmingham Race Impact Group (BRIG) has designed an accountability exercise in which all the major civil institutions in Birmingham are invited to evaluate their progress in delivering their race equality strategy by answering a set of questions designed to elicit data by which that progress could be objectively measured by a panel of independent experts.
It was with this in mind that BRIG engaged with B2022 as one of the most significant initiatives that had used the diversity of the City as a central plank in its bid to secure the Commonwealth Games. Having made diversity an integral delivery objective the community have sought to both engage with B2022 and keep a watch brief. Community concerns were first raised back in July 2020, when a 51 co-signed letter of prominent members raised their concerns about the makeup of the Organising Committee’s (OC) Board of Directors with only 1 out of 20 being non-white. The OC’s Board of Directors role is one of planning and operational delivery of the games, inclusive of governance of this by ensuring individual stakeholders activities are aligned accordingly for a successful games. Therefore, key major players and investors required to fulfil this task are represented on the OC Board to provide governance oversight in protecting their investment and taking collective action as required.
n initiating the B2022 Race Equality Progress Report Card (Report Card), BRIG asked a range of questions, inclusive of the original community questions of 2020, recontextualised given the passage of time. Other related questions on the use of the Equalities Act 2010; B2022 Race Equality outturn data; Procurement Contracting and Commissioning, Birmingham Commonwealth Settlers Legacy and the B2022 legacy formed the basis of the Report Card.
The OC agreed to a RAG (Red – Urgent Action Required / Amber – Work Needed / Green – On Course) self-assessment against each of the key lines of enquiry. But it has to be said that BRIG was disappointed with the dilatory nature of, and obfuscation in, the manner in which B2022 engaged with this exercise. The BRIG Assessment Team proceeded to assess the B2022 submission as per agreed protocol with the OC from the information provided and its knowledge and expertise in the respective areas being assessed.
From the outset there has been a lack of clarity as to the role, membership and protocol of the OC Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Forum, as experienced by its participants. This failure by the leadership to work with partners strategically on the forum served to compound frustration. Notwithstanding their proclaimed commitment to celebrating diversity, it was obvious that they had failed crucially to win wide and deep community support.
Ultimately, the lack of evidence of meaningful progress, despite their later proposals for improvement, led BRIG to conclude that the questions raised by BRIG and the communities of Birmingham remained unanswered and unresolved. The OC were given until the end of April to respond to the draft Report Card findings addressing the specific lines of inquiry arising from their submission but failed to do so, until BRIG indicated its intention to proceed with the publications of its findings. The BRIG assessors agreed, nevertheless, to produce the Report Card based on their findings, inclusive of the OC response to the draft where amendment was warranted. The result is presented in the findings, conclusion and recommendations session of this report.
The conclusions of the Report Card make dismal reading and will leave the diverse communities of Birmingham feeling that they have been largely ignored. It would appear that the OC has been preoccupied more with its internal delivery structure’s inclusivity than with winning the trust, confidence and support of Birmingham’s ethnically diverse communities. This has thus neglected the opportunity provided by the games to start addressing the deep-running and persistent racial inequalities in the city, alongside the key city partners on the OC Board. This may well become one of the more undesirable legacies of the Commonwealth Games.
